Let me be clear about what this article is and is not. I am a coach with forty years on court, not a doctor. Nothing here is medical advice, and none of it is a diagnosis. If your knee actually hurts, the person to talk to is a physician or a physical therapist, and the sooner the better. What I can tell you is what I see from ten feet away: which movement habits load knees hard, which ones do not, and how the players who keep playing comfortably into their 70s tend to move.
The sport is not the problem. The movements are.
Pickleball has a good reputation for a reason. The court is small, the distances are short, and the paddle is light. Compared to tennis, you cover far less ground per point.
But a small court creates its own habits, and a few of them are demanding. Three come up constantly.
Backpedaling. A lob goes up, the player walks backward with their eyes on the ball, and everything about that position is unstable. It is also how most on-court falls happen. The fix is a turn and go: pivot, take an angled path back with your body turned sideways, and play the ball off the bounce. Or let a clearly deep lob land. One point is cheap.
Twisting on a planted foot. Reaching wide for a ball while your foot stays glued to the court puts rotation through the knee that your feet should have absorbed. Almost always this happens because the player did not move their feet at all, just reached. Small steps first, then reach.
Lunging from flat-footed and upright. If you are standing tall with straight legs when the ball comes, the only way to reach a low one is a hard lunge from a dead stop. If you are already in a low athletic position with knees soft, the same ball is a step and a bend.
Notice that all three are positioning problems, not fitness problems. That is the encouraging part. They are learnable at any age.
The ready position does more work than anything else
If I could give one physical habit to every player over 50, it would be this: feet a bit wider than your shoulders, knees soft, weight forward on the balls of your feet, paddle up in front of you. Not a deep squat. Just unlocked.
From that position you can move in any direction with a small step. From straight legs and heels down, every ball becomes a lurch. The players who look effortless at 70 are almost always the ones who spend the point in that soft, ready posture and take three small steps where someone else takes one big one.
Small steps are also gentler. A quick adjusting step is a fraction of the load of a long stride or a stop-and-plant. Court coverage built out of small steps is both better pickleball and less demanding on the joints.
Where you stand changes what your legs have to do
This is the tactical side, and it matters more than most people expect.
The kitchen line is the least physically demanding place on the court. Balls arrive to you, reaches are short, points are decided by hands and touch. Mid-court is the most demanding place, because every ball is at your feet and every reach is a lunge. Players who get stuck in the transition zone are doing far more work per point than players who get to the line and hold it.
So the fastest way to ask less of your legs is not a brace or a supplement. It is getting to the kitchen line and staying there, which is exactly what the third shot drop is for. Doubles positioning that saves your legs is also most of what I wrote about in playing great pickleball at 70 and beyond.
Shoes
This is the cheapest change on the list and a lot of players get it wrong.
Wear court shoes, not running shoes. Running shoes are engineered for straight-line motion, with a soft, tall heel that is designed to compress. Pickleball is side to side, and that tall soft heel rolls under lateral load. Court shoes have a lower, wider, flatter platform and real lateral support.
Replace them sooner than you want to. Outdoor asphalt around here chews tread quickly, and a court shoe with a slick sole is a slipping hazard long before it looks worn out. Check the outsole every couple of months and look at whether the pattern is still sharp under the ball of your foot.
Socks are not nothing either. A decent cushioned athletic sock is a couple of dollars and changes how a two-hour morning feels.
Warming up, briefly and honestly
Most recreational players warm up by hitting five dinks and starting a game. Ten minutes would serve them better, and it does not need to be complicated.
Walk briskly for a few minutes so you are genuinely warm. Do some easy side-to-side stepping and some gentle leg swings. Then hit progressively: start at the kitchen with soft dinks, back up to midcourt, then to the baseline, then serves. By the time you play a point, everything has already moved through the range it is about to be asked to move through.
Save long static stretching for after you play or for another time of day. Before activity, movement prepares you better than holding a stretch does. I covered the full warm-up sequence I use with students in pickleball injury prevention for players over 50.
Soreness versus a stop sign
Here is where I want to be careful, because this is the part where a coach should hand you off to a professional.
Generalized, mild stiffness on both sides that eases once you get moving and settles down within a day or two is a common response to activity. Most players over 50 know that feeling well.
What is different, and what should end your session rather than test it: sharp pain, pain in one knee only, swelling, a knee that locks or catches, a knee that gives way, pain that wakes you at night, or any soreness that is still there several days later. Those are not things to play through and they are not things to self-diagnose from a blog post. Stop, and go see a physician or a physical therapist.
The players I know who have been on court the longest are, without exception, the ones who got things looked at early. Nobody has ever told me they regretted taking two weeks off. Plenty of people have told me they regretted pushing through a month.
What a coach can actually help with
Not your knee. Your movement.
Once you have whatever clearance you need, technique and positioning are genuinely coachable, and they are where most of the load comes from. Whether you turn or backpedal for a lob. Whether you reach or step. Whether you spend the point at the kitchen line or stranded in the middle. Whether your ready position is athletic or upright. Those things are visible from across a court and fixable in a lesson or two.
I teach at Bamford Park in Davie and travel to students in Weston, Cooper City, Plantation, Southwest Ranches and Pembroke Pines. Private lessons are $100 an hour, and you can see how I run them on the lessons page.
Text Steve at (954) 461-9946 if you want someone to watch how you move and tell you what is costing you. And if something actually hurts, please see a professional first. The court will still be there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is pickleball hard on your knees?
It can be, mostly because of how players move rather than the sport itself. Backpedaling, twisting on a planted foot, and lunging from a standing start ask a lot of the knees. Court coverage built around small adjusting steps from an athletic ready position asks much less.
What shoes should I wear for pickleball?
Court shoes, not running shoes. Running shoes are built for straight-line motion with a soft, tall heel that rolls under lateral load. Court shoes have a flatter, wider platform and lateral support. Replace them when the tread flattens, which happens fast on outdoor asphalt.
Should I warm up before pickleball?
Yes, and moving warm-ups suit the sport better than standing stretches. Five to ten minutes of brisk walking, easy side steps, and gentle progressive hitting from dinks outward gets you readier for the first point than static stretching does.
Is knee soreness after pickleball normal?
Mild, symmetrical stiffness that eases as you move and settles within a day or two is common after activity. Pain that is sharp, one-sided, comes with swelling, locking, giving way, or does not settle is different, and that is a reason to stop playing and see a medical professional rather than to push through.
Can I keep playing pickleball with knee problems?
That is a question for your doctor or physical therapist, not for a coach. Many people do continue playing with guidance from a professional, sometimes with adjustments to how they move and how often they play. What a coach can help with is the technique and positioning side once you have that clearance.